This thread made me nostalgic for the late '90s, so I went to go look up some of AMR's old annual reports. Man, those guys were printing money back then. With fuel prices being what they are, I'm not sure when -- or if -- they'll get back to billion-dollar profits, but at least they have the rest of their costs under control.

New airplanes, new employees, low fares, all touchy-feely ... all of them are losers. -Gordon Bethune

By the way, notice on a side note that all the highly profitable airlines now days (besides FedEx which should not be on this list) all are major fliers of the 777. Looks like the aircraft which Airbus describes as being too expensive to buy is making good returns.

Quoting Mindscape (Reply 7):Is it possible to have the breakdown between AF and KL ?
Thank you

We as employees got the separate numbers not to long ago. I do not have
the exact numbers right now but I remember that out of the net 913M Euro
profit KLM made 500+ millions and AF 400+ millions. Considering the individual
size of the two companies I think it's fair to say KLM is doing an exceptional
job here!!!

Quoting KLMCedric (Reply 15):Considering the individual
size of the two companies I think it's fair to say KLM is doing an exceptional
job here!!!

Sorry, but you can't use these computations that way. The KLM part of the airline is making a lot of money mainly because of the group effect in terms of network, procurements...
By the same token, AF's margin seems low compared to BA's, for instance. It is due to the network system on which the European feeder flights have a tarification program that is meant to just break even . The money comes mostly from the long range flights.( BA has just about given up on Europe).
That said, your performance is a credit to your dedication.

No. Respect for what colleagues have achieved.And, because I work with them, I should know.
What a lot of A.netters, especially the other side of the Manche fail to understand is how much the two operations have been integrated without any component having the right to say they.ve been cheated by the new network system. If anything, the KLM people seem to be more optimistic than the AF ground staff, probably because working in CDG at the moment is very hard. AMS has a very smooth operation, compared.
Do I smell some sour grapes here in your comment ?

Quoting Kaitak744 (Reply 14):By the way, notice on a side note that all the highly profitable airlines now days (besides FedEx which should not be on this list) all are major fliers of the 777. Looks like the aircraft which Airbus describes as being too expensive to buy is making good returns.

And 3 of the 5 have A340 fleets too.....

Actually using your logic it should be pointed out that the Top 2 airline groupings have sizeable fleets of MD-11s - perhaps more airlines should have seen the value of these

I think you'll find that its not their aircraft choices that are the reason these airlines are at the top of the profitability rankings right now....

Quoting VV701 (Reply 23):So which is it? Have they 'just about given up on Europe' or is there 'still much work to be done' on their shorthaul business?

In 2004, BA was the most profitable airline in the world, and that sums pretty much the BA management strategy : go for profit instead of growth.
The quote from Broughton's report hides the fact that BA has lost more than 30% of short haul revenue in the last five years.
On the long haul - and it has to be noted that BA, contrary to LH or AF/KL has a point to point structure, vs hub,-BA has lost 10 % of its revenues during which time LH increased theirs by 50 % and AF by 45 %.
Please understand that I am not making a judgement of value, here, merely stating numbers and at the same time acknowledging the difficulty BA would have setting up a hub at LHR.
One has also to remark that BA is the legacy airline the hardest hit by the LCC phenomenon.
That BA is going all out on prime high end services is quite clever and probably the only winning strategy they have available.
But it's quite risky as a further glance on BA revenue structure shows a whopping 70 % of business revenues realised on the North Atlantic, a sort of exposure which is unknown both at LH and AF/KL.